System and method for estimating driving lane of vehicle

ABSTRACT

A system for estimating a driving lane of a vehicle includes a road surface marking recognizing unit configured to recognize a road surface marking of a lane in which the vehicle is driving, a lane change determining unit configured to calculate a variation in a distance between the vehicle and the recognized road surface marking at a pre-set time interval, and compare the calculated variation with a preset value to generate lane change information. The system also includes a driving lane estimating unit configured to estimate the driving lane of the vehicle on the basis of information of the lane in which the vehicle is driving and the lane change information.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority under from and the benefits of KoreanPatent Application No. 10-2014-0171968, filed on Dec. 3, 2014, which ishereby incorporated by reference for all purposes as if fully set forthherein.

BACKGROUND

Field

The present disclosure relates to a system and method for providinginformation regarding a lane in which a vehicle is driving, and moreparticularly, to a system and method for recognizing that a lane inwhich a vehicle is driving has been changed by utilizing informationregarding recognized road surface marking near the vehicle, andestimating a lane in which the vehicle is currently driving.

Discussion of the Background

For the sake of safety of vehicles and convenience of drivers, researchand development of an advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) orvehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication have actively been conducted, andone of key information required for ADAS or V2V is accurate informationregarding a lane in which a vehicle is driving.

In order to obtain information regarding a lane in which a vehicle isdriving, a method for obtaining information regarding a driving laneusing information regarding a road in which a vehicle is driving andlocation information of the vehicle based on GPS signals may be used.However, an error of the GPS signals makes it difficult to accuratelyrecognize a lane in which a vehicle is driving, and failure toaccurately recognizing a driving lane leads to unreliability of aservice provided through an ADAS or V2V.

Among related arts for solving the foregoing problem and recognizing alane in which a vehicle is driving is Korean Patent Laid-openPublication No. 10-2014-0087860 (Entitled “Method for Estimating CurrentLane”, hereinafter, referred to as “related art 1”).

In order to solve the problem in which a location of a vehicle in atransverse direction is not accurately estimated due to an error of GPSinformation, the related art 1 employs a scheme of recognizing left andright road surface markings of a vehicle through a camera sensorinstalled in the vehicle and estimating a lane in which the vehicle isdriving through road information in which the vehicle is driving.

However, the related art 1 is based on a scheme in which, in recognizingleft and right road surface markings of the vehicle, even a road surfacemarking not in proximity to the vehicle is recognized and compared withroad information to estimate a driving lane. Thus, when other vehiclesare driving nearby or when it is not easy to recognize a road surfacemarking through a camera sensor, a driving lane cannot be estimated.

Also, when a driving lane cannot be estimated with only recognized roadsurface marking information and road information, a driver should changea lane and subsequently compare two estimate values to determine adriving lane, causing driver's inconvenience of unnecessarily changing alane.

The above information disclosed in this Background section is only forenhancement of understanding of the background of the inventive concept,and, therefore, it may contain information that does not form the priorart that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skillin the art.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure provides a system and method allowing a drivingvehicle to recognize both road surface markings most adjacent theretoand estimate a lane in which the vehicle is driving by using variationsin transverse distance between the vehicle and the recognized roadsurface markings.

Additional aspects will be set forth in the detailed description whichfollows, and, in part, will be apparent from the disclosure, or may belearned by practice of the inventive concept.

An exemplary embodiment discloses a system for estimating a driving laneof a vehicle includes a road surface marking recognizing unit configuredto recognize a road surface marking of a lane in which the vehicle isdriving, a lane change determining unit configured to calculate avariation in a distance between the vehicle and the recognized roadsurface marking at a preset time interval, and compare the calculatedvariation with a preset value to generate lane change information. Thesystem also includes a driving lane estimating unit configured toestimate the driving lane of the vehicle on the basis of information ofthe lane in which the vehicle is driving and the lane changeinformation.

An exemplary embodiment also discloses a method for estimating a drivinglane of a vehicle. The method includes recognizing a road surfacemarking of a lane in which a the vehicle is driving, calculating avariation in a shortest distance between a center of the vehicle and therecognized road surface marking at a preset time interval, comparing thecalculated variation with a preset value and estimating the driving laneof the vehicle according to a comparison result, and providinginformation regarding the estimated driving lane to a navigation deviceinstalled in the vehicle.

The foregoing general description and the following detailed descriptionare exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide furtherexplanation of the claimed subject matter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a furtherunderstanding of the inventive concept, and are incorporated in andconstitute a part of this specification, illustrate exemplaryembodiments of the inventive concept, and, together with thedescription, serve to explain principles of the inventive concept.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a structure of a system forestimating a driving lane of a vehicle according to an exemplaryembodiment.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating a process of a method of estimatinga driving lane of a vehicle according to an exemplary embodiment.

FIGS. 3 and 4 are views illustrating a system for estimating a drivinglane of a vehicle according to an exemplary embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE ILLUSTRATED EMBODIMENTS

In the following description, for the purposes of explanation, numerousspecific details are set forth in order to provide a thoroughunderstanding of various exemplary embodiments. It is apparent, however,that various exemplary embodiments may be practiced without thesespecific details or with one or more equivalent arrangements. In otherinstances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagramform in order to avoid unnecessarily obscuring various exemplaryembodiments.

In the drawings, the size and relative sizes of regions and componentsmay be exaggerated for clarity. Like numerals denote like elements.

When an element is referred to as being “on,” “connected to,” or“positioned on” another element or layer, it may be directly on,connected to, or positioned on the other element or intervening elementsmay be present. When, however, an element is referred to as being“directly on,” “directly connected to,” or “directly positioned on”another element, there are no intervening elements present. For thepurposes of this disclosure, “at least one of X, Y, and Z” and “at leastone selected from the group consisting of X, Y, and Z” may be construedas X only, Y only, Z only, or any combination of two or more of X, Y,and Z, such as, for instance, XYZ, XYY, YZ, and ZZ. As used herein, theterm “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of theassociated listed items.

Although the terms “first,” “second,” etc. may be used herein todescribe various elements, components, regions, and/or sections, theseelements, components, regions, and/or sections should not be limited bythese terms. These terms are used to distinguish one element, component,region, and/or section from another element, component, region, and/orsection. Thus, a first element, component, region, and/or sectiondiscussed below could be termed a second element, component, region,and/or section without departing from the teachings of the presentdisclosure.

Spatially relative terms, such as “beneath,” “below,” “lower,” “above,”“upper,” “left,” “right,” and the like, may be used herein fordescriptive purposes, and, thereby, to describe one element or feature'srelationship to another element(s) or feature(s) as illustrated in thedrawings. Spatially relative terms are intended to encompass differentorientations of an apparatus in use, operation, and/or manufacture inaddition to the orientation depicted in the drawings. For example, ifthe apparatus in the drawings is turned over, elements described as“below” or “beneath” other elements or features would then be oriented“above” the other elements or features. Thus, the exemplary term “below”can encompass both an orientation of above and below. Furthermore, theapparatus may be otherwise oriented (e.g., rotated 90 degrees or atother orientations), and, as such, the spatially relative descriptorsused herein interpreted accordingly.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particularembodiments and is not intended to be limiting. As used herein, thesingular forms, “a,” “an,” and “the” are intended to include the pluralforms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. Moreover,the terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “have,” “having,” “includes,”and/or “including,” when used in this specification, specify thepresence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements,components, and/or groups thereof, but do not preclude the presence oraddition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations,elements, components, and/or groups thereof.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientificterms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by oneof ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure is a part. Terms,such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should beinterpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning inthe context of the relevant art and will not be interpreted in anidealized or overly formal sense, unless expressly so defined herein.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a structure of a system forestimating a driving lane of a vehicle according to an exemplaryembodiment.

A system 100 for estimating a driving lane of a vehicle may include aroad surface marking recognizing unit 101, a lane change determiningunit 102, and a driving lane estimating unit 103.

The road surface marking recognizing unit 101 may recognize a roadsurface marking of a lane in which a vehicle is driving, and transmitinformation regarding the recognized road surface marking to the lanechange determining unit 102.

The road surface marking recognizing unit 101 may recognize a roadsurface marking closest to the vehicle, among road surface markingspositioned on the left of the vehicle, and may recognize a road surfacemarking closest to the vehicle, among road surface markings positionedon the right of the vehicle. The road surface marking recognizing unit101 may measure a transverse distance between the center of the vehicleand the recognized road surface marking and may transmit informationregarding the measured transverse distance to the lane changedetermining unit 102.

The lane change determining unit 102 may receive information regardingthe road surface markings positioned on the left and right of thevehicle and closest to the vehicle.

The lane change determining unit 102 may calculate variations in thetransverse distance between the vehicle and the road surface markingsreceived from the road surface marking recognizing unit 101 at a presettime interval. The lane change determining unit 102 may compare thecalculated variations with a preset value to determine whether thevehicle has changed a driving lane.

When a vehicle changes a driving lane, a transverse distance between thevehicle and a road surface marking is rapidly changed, and here, whethera vehicle has changed a driving lane may be determined by calculatingvariations in the transverse distance between a vehicle and a white linkmarker at a preset time interval.

FIGS. 3 and 4 are views illustrating a system for estimating a drivinglane of a vehicle according to an exemplary embodiment determineswhether a driving lane has been changed.

FIG. 3 is a view illustrating an exemplary embodiment of determiningwhether a driving lane has been changed by measuring a transversedistance between the vehicle and a left road surface marking. Asillustrated in FIG. 3, the system 100 for estimating a driving lane of avehicle may measure distances between the vehicle and the left roadsurface marking at points in time t₁, t₂, t₃, t₄, and t₅ and measureddistances are L(t₁), L(t₂), L(t₃), L(t₄), and L(t₅).

The intervals between the points in time t₁, t₂, t₃, t₄, and t₅ areequal, and the time interval may be set to be decreased as a velocity ofthe vehicle increases.

The lane change determining unit 102 may calculate variations in thetransverse distances |L(t₂)−L(t₁)|, |L(t₃)−L(t₂)|, |L(t₄)−L(t₃)|, and|L(t₅)−L(t₄)| by using the transverse distances between the vehicle andthe road surface marking respectively measured at the foregoing pointsin time. The lane change determining unit 102 may compare the calculatedvariations in the transverse distances with a preset value A todetermine whether the variations are greater than the preset value A.

Here, the preset value A may be set to a value smaller than a width W ofthe lane obtained from road information in which the vehicle is driving,and may be set by using the width (W) of the lane (e.g., ½ and ⅔ of thewidth (W) of the lane).

As illustrated in FIG. 3, since the vehicle is driving in the same lanebetween points in time t₁ and t₂ and between t₂ and t₃, it can be seenthat the variation in the transverse distance between the vehicle andthe road surface marking is smaller than the preset value A. However,when the vehicle moves to the left lane from the lane in which thevehicle has been driving, it can be seen that the transverse distancebetween the vehicle and the left road surface marking becomes equal tothe width (W) (at the point in time t₃) and the variation |L(t₄)−L(t₃)|in the transverse distance is greater than the preset value A.

Thus, the lane change determining unit 102 may determine whether thevehicle has changed a driving lane by calculating the variation in thetransverse distance between the vehicle and the road surface marking andcomparing the calculated variation with the preset value A.

The lane change determining unit 102 determines whether a driving lanehas been changed based on a variation in the transverse distance betweenthe vehicle and the road surface marking, and may determine a directionin which a lane has been changed based on a changed state of thetransverse distance between the vehicle and the road surface marking.

According to an exemplary embodiment, when it is sensed that a drivinglane of a vehicle has been changed, it may be estimated that the lanehas been changed in a direction in which the transverse distance betweenthe vehicle and the road surface marking decreases in a section prior toa section in which lane changing has been sensed.

For example, as illustrated in FIG. 4, referring to a state of thechange in the transverse distance in the section of t₂ to t₃ prior tothe point in time t₄ at which changing of a driving lane by the vehiclewas sensed, it can be seen that, since L(t₃)<L(t₂), the transversedistance between the vehicle and the road surface marking decreases.Although not shown in FIG. 4, it can be seen that the transversedistance between the vehicle and a right road surface marking increasesup to the point in time t₃.

Thus, when changing of a driving lane by the vehicle is sensed, it maybe estimated that the driving lane has been changed in a direction inwhich the transverse distance between the vehicle and the road surfacemarking in a previous section decreases.

According to another exemplary embodiment, the lane change determiningunit 102 may receive information regarding a steering angle from asteering angle sensor of the vehicle and determine a movement directionof the vehicle on the basis of the steering angle of the vehicle.

The lane change determining unit 102 may generate lane changeinformation including whether a lane has been changed based on thevariations in the transverse distance between the vehicle and the roadsurface marking and information regarding a lane change direction, andmay transmit the generated lane change information to the driving laneestimating unit 103.

When the lane change information is received from the lane changedetermining unit 102, the driving lane estimating unit 103 may estimatethe current driving lane of the vehicle by using the informationregarding the lane in which the vehicle has been driving and thereceived lane change information.

For example, when it is determined that the vehicle, which has beendriving in K lane of an N-lane road, has changed a lane and a lanechange direction is the left side, the driving lane is changed to K−1.Also, when the lane change direction is the right side, the driving laneis changed to K+1.

According to another exemplary embodiment, when it is determined thatthe vehicle has entered an expressway, the lane number information N ofthe expressway in which the vehicle is currently driving is receivedfrom a navigation device of the vehicle. Here, since the vehicle entersthe expressway from the right-most lane, the lane K in which the vehicleis currently driving is set to N (i.e., the current driving lane is afourth lane immediately after the vehicle enters the four-laneexpressway).

Thus, since the current driving lane may be recognized through theexpressway entry information, a lane in which the vehicle is driving maybe continuously estimated according to lane change information generatedby the lane change determining unit 102.

According to an exemplary embodiment, whether a vehicle has changed adriving lane and a lane change direction can be recognized by measuringa distance between a vehicle and an adjacent road surface marking,whereby a driving lane of the vehicle may be accurately estimated. Also,since information regarding an estimated driving lane is provided to anavigation system, an advanced driver assistance system (ADAS), and thelike, driving lane information may be allowed to be used.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating a process of a method of estimatinga driving lane of a vehicle according to an exemplary embodiment.

The system for estimating a driving lane of a vehicle recognizes leftand right road surface markings of a lane in which a vehicle is drivingthrough a camera sensor installed in the vehicle in step S200. Thesystem for estimating a driving lane of a vehicle may recognize only aroad surface marking closest to the vehicle. When the system forestimating a driving lane of a vehicle recognizes a road surfacemarking, the system for estimating a driving lane of a vehicle maymeasure a transverse distance between the vehicle and the recognizedroad surface marking in step S210.

The system for estimating a driving lane of a vehicle may calculatevariations in the measured transverse distance at a preset time intervalin step S220, and may determine whether the calculated variations aregreater than the preset value in step S230.

When the vehicle changes a driving lane by recognizing only the left andright road surface markings closest to the vehicle, only the recognizedleft and right lanes will be changed. Thus, a transverse distance to aroad surface marking in a direction in which the vehicle has moved isequal to the width of the entire lane to which the vehicle has move, anda transverse distance to a road surface marking in the oppositedirection is close to 0.

Thus, it can be estimated that the driving lane has been changed in thesection in which the transverse distance is rapidly changed, namely, inthe section in which the variation in the transverse distance is greaterthan the preset value.

When the variation in the transverse distance between the vehicle andthe road surface marking is greater than the preset value, the systemfor estimating a driving lane of a vehicle may determine that lanechanging has been made and may determine a movement direction of thevehicle in step S240.

A movement direction of the vehicle may be estimated as a direction inwhich a transverse direction between the vehicle and the road surfacemarking decreases in a section prior to a time section in which thechange in the driving lane of the vehicle was sensed.

When the change in the driving lane of the vehicle is sensed and themovement direction of the vehicle is determined, the system forestimating a driving lane of a vehicle may estimate a lane in which thevehicle is currently driving by using the information of the lane inwhich the vehicle has been driving, information regarding whether thelane has been changed, and information regarding a lane change directionin step S250.

According to an exemplary embodiment, a driving lane of the vehicle canbe accurately estimated because a road surface marking closest to avehicle is recognized and a transverse distance between the vehicle andthe road surface marking is measured to determine whether a lane hasbeen changed or a lane change direction.

The system 100 and/or one or more components thereof, may be implementedvia one or more general purpose and/or special purpose components, suchas one or more discrete circuits, digital signal processing chips,integrated circuits, application specific integrated circuits,microprocessors, processors, programmable arrays, field programmablearrays, instruction set processors, and/or the like. In this manner, thefeatures, functions, processes, etc., described herein may beimplemented via software, hardware (e.g., general processor, digitalsignal processing (DSP) chip, an application specific integrated circuit(ASIC), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), etc.), firmware, or acombination thereof. As such, system 100 and/or one or more componentsthereof may include or otherwise be associated with one or more memories(not shown) including code (e.g., instructions) configured to cause thesystem 100 and/or one or more components thereof to perform one or moreof the features, functions, processes, etc., described herein.

The memories may be any medium that participates in providing code tothe one or more software, hardware, and/or firmware components forexecution. Such memories may be implemented in any suitable form,including, but not limited to, non-volatile media, volatile media, andtransmission media. Non-volatile media include, for example, optical ormagnetic disks. Volatile media include dynamic memory. Transmissionmedia include coaxial cables, copper wire and fiber optics. Transmissionmedia can also take the form of acoustic, optical, or electromagneticwaves. Common forms of computer-readable media include, for example, afloppy disk, a flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, any othermagnetic medium, a compact disk-read only memory (CD-ROM), a rewriteablecompact disk (CDRW), a digital video disk (DVD), a rewriteable DVD(DVD-RW), any other optical medium, punch cards, paper tape, opticalmark sheets, any other physical medium with patterns of holes or otheroptically recognizable indicia, a random-access memory (RAM), aprogrammable read only memory (PROM), and erasable programmable readonly memory (EPROM), a FLASH-EPROM, any other memory chip or cartridge,a carrier wave, or any other medium from which information may be readby, for example, a controller/processor.

Although certain exemplary embodiments and implementations have beendescribed herein, other embodiments and modifications will be apparentfrom this description. Accordingly, the inventive concept is not limitedto such embodiments, but rather to the broader scope of the presentedclaims and various obvious modifications and equivalent arrangements.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for estimating a driving lane of avehicle, the system comprising: a processor of the vehicle configuredto: receive image data from a camera sensor; recognize a road surfacemarking of a lane in which the vehicle is driving from the image data;determine which road surface marking is closest to the vehicle amongroad surface markings positioned on at least one of the left and theright of the vehicle; calculate a variation in a distance between thevehicle and the recognized road surface marking at a preset timeinterval; compare the calculated variation with a preset value togenerate lane change information; and estimate the driving lane of thevehicle on the basis of information of the lane in which the vehicle isdriving and the lane change information.
 2. The system of claim 1,wherein the processor of the vehicle is configured to generate the lanechange information comprising information regarding whether thecalculated variation is equal to or greater than the preset value andinformation regarding a movement direction of the vehicle.
 3. The systemof claim 1, wherein the processor of the vehicle generates the lanechange information comprising information regarding a direction in whichthe distance between the vehicle and the recognized road surface markingdecreased when the calculated variation is equal to or greater than thepreset value.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor of thevehicle calculates a variation in a shortest distance between a centerof the vehicle and the recognized road surface marking at the presettime interval.
 5. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor of thevehicle adjusts the preset time interval in inverse proportion to avelocity of the vehicle and calculates a variation in the distancebetween the vehicle and the recognized road surface marking.
 6. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the processor of the vehicle sets the presetvalue on the basis of a width of the lane comprised in a road on whichthe vehicle is driving.
 7. The system of claim 1, wherein when thecalculated variation is equal to or greater than the preset value, theprocessor of the vehicle estimates that the driving lane of the vehiclehas been changed in a movement direction of the vehicle.
 8. The systemof claim 1, wherein when it is determined that the vehicle has entered aright-most lane of an expressway, the processor of the vehicle sets thedriving lane according to a number of lanes of the expressway, andestimates the driving lane of the vehicle according to the lane changeinformation generated by the processor of the vehicle.
 9. A method forestimating a driving lane of a vehicle, the method comprising: receivingimage data from a camera sensor at a processor, the processor:recognizing a road surface marking of a lane in which the vehicle isdriving in the image data received from the camera sensor; determiningwhich road surface marking is closest to the vehicle among road surfacemarkings positioned on at least one of the left and the right of thevehicle; calculating a variation in a shortest distance between a centerof the vehicle and the recognized road surface marking at a preset timeinterval; comparing the calculated variation with a preset value andestimating the driving lane of the vehicle according to a comparisonresult; and providing information regarding the estimated driving laneto a navigation device installed in the vehicle.
 10. The method of claim9, wherein the estimating of the driving lane of the vehicle accordingto the comparison result further comprises estimating that the drivinglane of the vehicle has changed in a direction in which a distancebetween the vehicle and the recognized road surface marking decreasedwhen the calculated variation is equal to or greater than the presetvalue.
 11. The method of claim 9, wherein the estimating of the drivinglane of the vehicle according to the comparison result further comprisessetting the driving lane of the vehicle according to a number of lanesof the expressway when it is determined that the vehicle has entered aright-most lane of the expressway, and estimating the driving lane ofthe vehicle according to a result obtained by comparing the calculatedvariation with the preset value.
 12. The method of claim 9, wherein thecalculating of a variation in shortest distance between the center ofthe vehicle and the recognized road surface marking at the preset timeinterval further comprises adjusting the preset time interval accordingto a driving speed of the vehicle and calculating a variation inshortest distance between the center of the vehicle and the recognizedroad surface marking.
 13. The method of claim 9, further comprisingproviding information regarding the estimated driving lane to anavigation device installed in the vehicle.